Shopify Subscriptions Agency for the DACH Market

We own the model, the purchase flow, the customer account and the connection to operations. Most of the work lies behind the first purchase: billing in the second and third cycle, handling declined payments, and handing orders to ERP and fulfilment. For brands entering the DACH market we also cover what German consumer law requires of a subscription.

A subscription on Shopify has two building blocks. The selling plan describes the offer with interval, discount and term and is attached to the product. The subscription contract is created at purchase and records the next date, quantity, address and payment method. Every subscription app works on these two blocks.

NICCOS has been a Shopify Plus Partner since April 2022. The Shopify Partner Directory lists 19 reviews with a rating of 5.0, and 13 case studies are published.

For consumer contracts concluded online, section 312k of the German Civil Code (BGB) requires a cancellation button. It has to be easy to find and reachable without logging in, and the customer receives a confirmation they can save. This is a requirement for the website. A cancel option inside the customer account does not cover it.

We build the cancellation route technically. How it has to be designed legally for your offer is a question for your lawyer. We do not build a hidden cancellation flow.

Payment methods are the second question before launch. A subscription needs a payment method that can be stored for later charges. Payment on invoice, which German shoppers are used to, usually does not meet that condition. The methods you offer for subscriptions affect how many visitors sign up, so we settle them together with the Shopify checkout.

A subscription sits in the store next to bundles, recommendations and the basket. If these parts come from different apps that know nothing of each other, the customer sees conflicting prices in the basket. We plan subscription, bundles and basket together.

Svenja Walberg, a German cosmetics brand, sells products that are used in routines and bought again regularly. In the relaunch on Shopify Plus we expanded the subscription feature and embedded the subscription flow into product page and checkout. Bundles for sets and routines, product recommendations and a new cart drawer were part of the same project. The launch covered the DACH region, and the setup is prepared for further markets.

The Svenja Walberg case study describes the scope and publishes no subscription metric, so we quote none. Expansion into further countries is covered on the page about Shopify Markets.

Shopify's own subscription feature covers models with a fixed interval and simple discount logic and is closely tied to admin and customer account. For many consumable products it is enough.

A specialised subscription app pays off for boxes with changing content, gift subscriptions, discounts that increase over the term, or a cancellation flow with pause and swap offers. We assess providers against your cases and include running costs over several years. That includes what happens to contracts and payment methods if you change provider later.

A custom build on Shopify's subscription APIs is an option when the subscription is the core of your business and no standard solution fits. It is the most expensive route and rarely the right one. When it is needed, the logic is built in Shopify app development.

Existing subscriptions can be migrated in many cases. What moves are the running contracts with interval, next date, discount and history. The bottleneck is the stored payment methods. They sit with the previous payment provider, and the transfer runs between certified parties and needs lead time.

The old and the new system must never bill at the same time. We plan the switch per contract and keep a route back. Customers are told in advance what changes in billing, account and access, because an unannounced switch causes chargebacks and cancellations.

If the whole store is moving from another platform, the subscription transfer is part of the Shopify migration and planned there as a separate workstream.

The number of subscriptions sold says little. What matters is how many contracts reach the second and third cycle, how many charges are declined, and why customers cancel. We set up that reporting before launch so the first cycle is already measured. The reason for cancelling is asked in the cancellation flow, optional and with a list to choose from.

The reasons define the next steps. If customers cancel because product piles up, a pause option or a longer interval is missing. If they cancel after a declined payment, the retry or the reminder to update the payment method is missing. Both can be built and measured again. How subscription events reach your analytics is described on the page about tracking setups.

Subscription models fail in operations. Declined payments without a retry, a customer account without a pause option and missing reminders before delivery cost running subscriptions. We build that part before the first campaign.

Subscriptions also multiply the orders that have to reach ERP and fulfilment. If orders are still entered into the ERP by hand, system integration comes first. After launch we monitor drop-off per cycle, declined payments and reasons for cancellation.